Except for Joan Collins's abject failure as a Latina heiress and some of the
overly pumped-up musical score, "The Bravados" is a great film, one of the great
adult westerns of the 1950s, in the company of Anthony Mann's westerns with
James Stewart and John Ford's "The Searchers," which is now recognized as a
canonical masterpiece. Peck in "The Bravados" has the same relentless monomania
John Wayne had in "The Searchers" (and that Peck himself had in John Huston's
film of "Moby Dick").

Jim Douglass (Peck) arrives in Rio Arriba at the start of the film to watch the
hanging of four men he has been stalking for six months, since his wife was
raped and murdered. He is practically mute, with a barely contained rage blazing
in his eyes. When the Sheriff Sanchez (Herbert Rudley) lets him look at the
prisoners in their cell, he emits no sound. The "Indian" Lujan (Henry Silva)
recognizes the eyes of a hunter. None of the four condemned men know Douglass or
who he is. (Over the course of the movie, they find out.)

They are sprung by Joe DeRita ("Curly Joe" of the 3 Stooges!) as the hangman and
the hunt resumes, with Douglass the de facto leader of a posse, but picking off
the escaped prisoners in direct encounters, confronting them with the picture of
his dead wife and young daughter that he carries inside his pocket watch. The
ones I recognize are Lee Van Cleef, Stephen Boyd, and Henry Silva. (I think the
other is Albert Salmi.) For me, Silva is indelibly one of the villains from "The
Manchurian Candidate," but his role here turns out to have surprising depths. He
does more than lock eyes with Peck in the jailhouse scene.

The movie has a denouement (before the ending) that rivals those in "The
Gunfighter" and "The Searchers" for poetic justice (of the mouthful of ashes
flavor). The movie is also very scenic (filmed by four-time Oscar winner Leon
Shamroy) and contains the carefully wrought details of escape and the hunt of
the best action flicks. What really matters most, however, is all in Gregory
Peck's eyes (and not just the burning quest for vengeance).

Henry King made a range of movies. Indeed, he made a range of movies just with
Gregory Peck, including some of Peck's best (Twelve o'clock High, The Snows of
Kilimanjaro, The Gunfighter).

Many have noted
that in the past year or so I have become a HUGE western fan. Luckily
they are being released on DVD quite frequently of late, so I am
indulging very extensively.

The anamorphic image on this DVD
is very good. Colors seem
acceptable (skin tones realistic) and it has relative sharpness. The
progressive image is an accurate and tight 2.35:1 ratio and looks
fabulous on a tube TV. Minor complaint might be that it looks a little
thick in some scenes, but contrast and black levels are quite strong.
The 4.0 audio is tested a few times and is up to par. The subtitles are
well-done and Extras are quite lean with a trailer and 2 Fox Movie-Tone
filler clips.

I have to
try to be objective in my estimation of the film as I tend to enjoy
westerns so much these days, but I saw a lot of positives in this movie.
Strong story and performances and adept direction from King. I
recommend!out of